Attack shattered the skulls of mother, son

The mother and son who were slain in their Framingham apartment two years ago died from skull fractures suffered in a savage beating with a blunt object, a medical examiner testified yesterday.

Norman Miller/Daily News staff

The mother and son who were slain in their Framingham apartment two years ago died from skull fractures suffered in a savage beating with a blunt object, a medical examiner testified yesterday.

Both Carla and Caique Souza's heads were hit with so much force their skulls shattered in several places, the bone fragments piercing their brains, medical examiner William Zane told a Middlesex Superior Court jury.

Zane's testimony came during the 13th day of Jeremias Bins' double murder trial. Bins, 32, is accused of beating his wife, Carla, 37, and stepson Caique, 11, to death with a 2-pound hammer on May 20, 2006, in their 27 Gordon St. apartment.

Zane said both Souzas died from "multiple skull fractures with brain lacerations due to multiple impacts with a blunt object."

Carla Souza was struck at least six times with a blunt object that left rounded wounds to her skull, Zane said.

She could have been hit several more times because some of the wounds show evidence there could have been more than one blow to the same spot, he said.

Souza was struck at least once on the right side of her forehead, twice on the rear of her head, once on top of her head and twice on the left side of her head, Zane said.

Several of the blows fractured her skull, he said.

Zane said Souza's brain suffered several grievous wounds during the beating, including one to her cerebral cortex, the region which controls the lungs and heart.

"To live, you have to have the part of the brain that tells the lungs to keep breathing and the heart to keep beating," he said. "(The wounds) ended the brain's ability to manage what I mentioned the breathing and the beating of the heart."

At the time he performed the autopsy, Zane estimated Souza would have died in seconds. Massachusetts General Hospital doctors could detect a heartbeat for more than an hour after she was taken there, he said.

Caique Souza was 4 feet, 10 inches tall and weighed 95 pounds when he died. Zane said he had at least three injuries to the head one near the top of the skull, one to right ear, and one below that.

Those injuries, Zane said, were also created by an object with a rounded surface.

Caique Souza's brain had several lacerations and brain swelling, the medical examiner said.

Zane estimated the boy, like his mother, would have likely died within seconds, but doctors at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham detected a heartbeat for almost an hour before declaring him dead.

Also yesterday, Michelle Levasseur of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab in Danvers continued her testimony about evidence collected from 27 Gordon St. on May 21, 2006.

She said the head of the hammer authorities say is the murder weapon was saturated with blood, while there were several smaller stains on the wooden handle. She said a 3-inch gap at the bottom of the handle where someone would have held it had no blood on it.

Levasseur also said she found two hair fragments on the head of the hammer.

When Bins was arrested, police seized the clothes he was wearing. She said there were small blood stains found on his shorts, the front right shoulder of his shirt, the rear right shoulder and the rear left shoulder.

Levasseur said the spots on the rear of his shirt were consistent with a cast-off blood spatter pattern, which she said is created when blood flies off a moving object onto a stationary object.

In all, Levasseur said she sent 26 items for DNA testing.

Bins' lawyer, Earl Howard, questioned Levasseur about several of the bloody locations in the apartment.

There was a bloodstain near where the hammer was found. Howard questioned whether it is possible the hammer was kicked before she collected it for evidence. She said there was no evidence of the hammer being kicked, and the only way for that to occur was if the blood was dried.

Levasseur also said she could not say definitely what caused the cast-off pattern, agreeing that Howard's example of blood flying off someone's long, swinging hair was plausible.

Howard also asked whether flipping the bodies into pools of blood, or even the bodies being mishandled by medical people dropping them in the blood pools could cause the medium velocity spatter found on furniture.

Levasseur said she could not say for sure, but did say a body being turned over, or flipped, into a pool of blood would create low velocity spatter.

Howard also asked what direction blood would "gush" from a head wound, and how far it would go. Levasseur said the only way there would be a gushing wound was if an artery was severed, and there was no evidence that occurred.

Zane is scheduled to continue testifying today.

(Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@cnc.com.)

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